RUSSIA’S LEADER

Southland Times, Issue 25358, 9 May 1944, Page 4

RUSSIA’S LEADER

Stalin Fought His Way To Top

“The biography of Stalin is the history of the U.S.S.R., or vice versa,” said Mr Gustav Deimel last night in introducing the fifth of a series of public lectures on world leaders of today sponsored by the W.E.A. Much of the information which we had received about him in the past was biased because the outside world was hostile to anything Russian. There was nothing very mysterious about Stalin, continued the speaker. He was a strong-minded man who had fought his way up to the top. — “Joseph Stalin was born on December 21, 1879, in the township of Gori in Georgia, being the fourth child of the village cobbler, Vissarion Dugashvili. Little is known of Stalin’s childhood. His father died, leaving a son and widow. Stalin was certainly brought up in the most poverty stricken environment. However, in 1893 his mother managed to send him to the Orthodox seminary where he was prominent for his opposition to oppression of any kind. In 1897 he was expelled from the seminary because of his revolutionary activities.” . MEETING WITH LENIN

From 1897 to 1900 Stalin worked as shoemaker, book-keeper and professional agitator, mostly in Caucasia. In 1901 he was arrested and condemned to three years’ administrative exile in Nova Uda, Siberia, Altogether he was exiled seven times and escaped six times. He met Lenin in 1903 and was greatly impressed by him and became from then on his most ardent follower. In 1905 he was involved in the abortive revolution and was afterwards arrested and exiled. In 1911 Stalin was appointed to the central committee of the party. Four years he spent again in exile until 1917 when the Kerensky revolution freed him. From then oh he prepared for the October revolution. He became People’s Commissar for Nationalities in 1918. He served in many different theatres of operations during the civil war and in 1922 was appointed general secretary of the Communist Party. Lenin died two years later and the way was open to the top. “Although Stalin is an excellent talker, he is also a patient listener,” said Mr Deimel. “His hobby is reading scientific books. A statesman of unique experience, Stalin has been able to effect in 10 years a social transformation in Russia which could require 100 years under our system. In the process of this transformation Stalin realized the administrative ability of the masses in the same way as the whole world saw the ingenuity and initiative of the common British people in the dark days of 1940. Stalin is no orator. His speeches are business-like, but long. He avoids philosophical issues; instead, he aims at the broad level of the masses. Many observers deny Stalin any sense of human relationship. But his men work for him loyally and he chooses them well. If Lenin ruled by intellect, Stalin rules by efficient organization. Stalin has only one loyalty, and that is Communism in the U.S.S.R. Everything else in his own words is, ‘good or bad, the fate of the individual.’ ”